Whereas Marvel’s mutants have had their highs and lows all through the various a long time they’ve been round, one factor stays fixed: the X-Males are timeless. That’s not due to the cool costumes and creative powers the forged has. It’s as a result of at their core, X-Males’s themes of prejudice and humanity’s capability to hate simply as a lot as — if no more than — its capability to like are all the time related. Which is why X-Males ‘97, the continuation of X-Males: The Animated Sequence, delivers a shocking debut in its two-episode premiere now streaming on Disney+. It’s basic X-Males, and that’s all the time going to work.
Inside a matter of seconds, X-Males ‘97 makes it really feel like no time has handed since its predecessor went off the air almost three a long time in the past. The long-lasting unique theme music begins up and the intro scene performs out precisely because it all the time has. Properly, not precisely. It performs out as you bear in mind it. The crisp animation is extra vivid and expressive, and there are a couple of new characters that get a highlight within the intro. This can be a working theme for X-Males ‘97: it’s the X-Males cartoon not because it was, however as you bear in mind it.
That begins with the animation. Whereas the unique’s 2D animation is beloved, it doesn’t fairly maintain up on rewatches. As a substitute, X-Males ‘97 opts for 3D animation that’s shaded and coloured to resemble the unique 2D type. It’s a technique different initiatives have used earlier than, and it by no means fairly works for me. As somebody who dislikes the animation of What If…? I used to be fearful that the 2D styling would really feel off. I used to be greater than pleasantly stunned, then, by how good the animation seems in X-Males ‘97. Outdoors of some awkward sequences within the first two episodes, the animation works splendidly. That goes for its near-perfect replication of the intro in addition to its hectic motion scenes. Episode one actually goes laborious on the visible splendor in its climactic combat scene, which incorporates Storm turning a desert into glass after which shattering it into items. It’s spectacular.
However sufficient about how good the present seems. What have our loveable forged of mutants been as much as since we final noticed them? A yr after the dying of mentor and chief Charles Xavier, Cyclops (now voiced admirably by Ray Chase) struggles to fill Professor X’s footwear. Cyclops and Wolverine (voiced by Cal Dodd, one among a number of returning voices from the unique collection) nonetheless butt heads. Jean and Scott predict a son. Jubilee continues to be cool as hell. Regardless of some development in mutant-human relations, lots of people who hate mutants and need them to be exterminated nonetheless exist, just like the Buddies of Humanity. It’s a mixture of acquainted and new components.
The primary episode “To Me, My X-Males” doesn’t do something narratively bold. It tells a easy X-Males story about rescuing a younger mutant (Hey, that’s Sunspot!) and combating off some evil people, ending with that beforehand talked about spectacle of a combat. It’s consolation meals and it makes for a simple return to the collection, one which’s good for everyone regardless of your stage of familiarity with The Animated Sequence. After all every thing will get upended within the closing moments of the episode when none apart from Magneto (you understand, the X-Males’s archenemy) exhibits as much as break the information that Xavier’s Final Will and Testomony provides every thing to him.
That units up the true star of X-Males ‘97’s two-part premiere: the second episode, “Mutant Liberation Begins.” Xavier has left the college and the X-Males to Magneto as a closing problem to his closest pal (facet observe: these two are by no means beating the “ex-lovers who can’t recover from one another” allegations and this present is aware of that) to try to think about a extra peaceable approach ahead for mutants and people. This consists of making amends for his previous crimes towards humanity, for which he willingly goes on trial on the UN. Whereas he’s on trial, disgruntled people protesting exterior the UN break in and stage a violent assault, focusing on Magento and the three judges. “What within the blazes did we do?” shouts one decide. “You gave a monster a trial, “ replies Magneto. “Now you’re traitors to your variety.”
What shocked me most concerning the scenes on the UN is how a lot they really feel like a transparent allusion to the January 6 revolt within the U.S. Capitol in 2021. However this story wasn’t invented complete fabric for X-Males ‘97, it’s closely adapting The Path of Magento from Uncanny X-Males #200 by Chris Claremont. That got here out in 1985, although like so lots of the X-Males’s finest tales, they all the time appear to talk to the present cultural second. X-Males ‘97 makes that story its personal, however the parallels are already there, which is why—regardless of the present state of the X-Males within the comics being largely dire (with one shining ray of hope)—X-Males ‘97 is ready to showcase the characters at their finest. Like The Animated Sequence, X-Males ‘97 is in a position to attract on a long time of tales and select the cream of the crop to repackage and tweak for a brand new viewers.
Whereas Magneto is on trial, Jean is coping with her being pregnant. It’s a quieter storyline than the UN assault however equally vital. Jean confesses to Storm that she is scared to offer beginning to a mutant for worry that her baby must undergo the ache she has. Storm confesses that she’d usually struggled with ideas of what life would have been like had she been born human, however that she’s joyful as a mutant due to the household she has discovered. This dialog, and one other between Sunspot and Jubilee about hating your personal id within the first episode, make the X-Males’s capacity to face in for marginalized teams as sharp as ever. The episode ends with a shocking monologue from Magneto which solidifies “Mutant Liberation Begins” as a narrative that delivers each single factor an excellent X-Males story ought to.
Like the primary episode, “Mutant Liberation Begins” ends on a reasonably dramatic cliffhanger. As a longtime fan of the X-Males, I’m intrigued by how the present goes to place its personal mark on this iconic story. X-Males ‘97 has made it really feel like I’m falling in love with the characters for the primary time once more. The present completely balances the superhero motion and private tales simply as deftly because it balances nostalgia with recent perception into the characters. It’s X-Males via and thru. What else might you ask for?
